Central NL's 9-11 contribution to be featured in full-length documentary

Filming is currently underway for a full-length feature documentary about the people of central Newfoundland who cared for nearly 7,000 stranded passengers following the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

GANDER, NL – The stories of how the people of central Newfoundland stepped forward in a time of need will be on display in a full-length feature documentary next year.

Independent film company MDF Productions Inc. is taking on the project.

According to the company’s website, MDF Productions is a cross-platform production company based in Toronto. It has produced over 25 productions that have been screened theatrically in film festivals and televised around the globe. Director Moze Mossanen said the documentary is for Bell Media, which includes CTV and HBO Canada. “After we heard Come From Away was going to Broadway, I felt that there was a really important story here,” he said. “I didn’t want to do a film about the musical, but I wanted to do a film about the actual people who inspired it.” Over a two-week film period – one week in February, and another in September – Mossanen and his crew have been doing just that. They have been collecting the stories of those portrayed in Come From Away, such as Beulah Cooper, Appleton Mayor Derm Flynn, and Gander Mayor Claude Elliott, but also capturing the stories of the people who may not have been mentioned specifically in the Tony Award-winning musical. “Since we’ve been here we got to meet so many more people than we intended,” said Mossanen. “It’s been awesome, everybody has been so kind.”